My 12 ga. was made in 1946 with many honest nicks, dings and scratches from being in the brambles and occasionally thick blackberry thorns when I miscalculate a route.

I also carried pheasant dinner home this week.

First time I shot an Ithica 37 12 gauge, was at the NYC Police range on City Island.
The fact that you could hold the trigger back, keep pumping, AND it keeps firing, great.

Plus the bottom load, and eject, reloading in pitch black of night, just turn it upside down in your right hand, and load with your left, purely by feel.
Do not know the barrel length on that riot gun, but it was short.

Well, currently I'm heeled with a Smith M66 and some of my home cast hollow points against the remote possibility that one of the local skunks that have been encouraging my pointer to come out for a tussle shows up in today's 24 degree weather....hey, I caught a sniff last night at 2100...gosh knows what he's doing out there. Pic below.

But for the rest of the preceding week, short of a trip to the Post Office, I carried a Sig 365 in an OWB of my own making. Enough, donchaknow, and not too much to be considered a suburban ninja.

YMMv, Rod

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Cherish our flag, honor it, defend what it stands for in word and deed, or get the hell out. Our Freedoms are not free, they've been paid for many times over by heros in uniform. We owe them and our children, the best that we can do.

Certainly we all realize that self defense is not pretty and rarely remains confined to our imagined perameters. That said, if you were to land on your rear-end during a scuffle or whatever, is that gun going to stay in its holster. Honestly, that rig looks like a strong wind might be cause for concern.

Maybe not you personally but "people" tend to believe violence to be something that noticeably develops in an expected manner. That is develops in a manner or pace which affords them the opportunity to ready themselves.

Honestly, that rig looks like a strong wind might be cause for concern.

Thanks for the opinion, Fire...I've been thrown from a horse and once from a hay wagon wearing a similar rig...I fit 'em tight and I don't get down and brawl anymore at 73 years old...we're pretty much farmers here and contend with city thugs with about the same regularity that we're hit by falling satellites. The holster is my rendition of the old Tom Threepersons open top design...and fitted the same way. YMMv. Rod

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Cherish our flag, honor it, defend what it stands for in word and deed, or get the hell out. Our Freedoms are not free, they've been paid for many times over by heros in uniform. We owe them and our children, the best that we can do.

I am very boring now that I am retired and since it cooled off here. I have been mostly carrying my Glock 27.3 that I have had for over 15 years. I shoot a couple times per week with several different guns, but the G27 just works for me. I'll admit that I do carry a G43 and a S&W 66-5 on occasion when it's hot outside.

Same two handguns but switched to my old Bianchi 215 holster for the JP Sauer. It is a slightly angled barrel up grip down thumb break holster. I have several holsters that can be used with the rig to fit different guns including a small one designed to hold my snubbies.

Christmas will be back in the 80s though. Will need a light over-shirt for that day.

I simply cannot wrap my head around the idea of regularly carrying several different guns of varying style, type, size, caliber, weight and intrinsic operations. I cant imagine how that can bolster my fighting prowess. I can however imagine how it can hinder it. Especially when you include physiology and typical stress reaction. In my opinion, it may be a mess waiting to happen

I attended a carbine course a while back and my AR system rifle crapped out on me really bad ( I damaged the gas system) and I didn't have enough mags for my back up gun. A buddy gave me his back up and mags which was a AK variant. Even under superficial stress, I flubbed a couple of basic tasks and had to perform certain articulations (twice) because I naturally gave in to muscle memory and trained habit action. I did this probably 3 times during the same module. These errors could easily have been measurably problematic if it were a real fight.

I carry a larger all steel gun in the winter and a smaller polymer gun in the summer. They are of different systems but I don't switch back and forth regularly. I train with and carry the same gun for 6 or 7 months at a time. I do this out of practical necessity and not out of some sort of entertainment value.

I guess what this highlights is the stark difference between people to may be in the hobby of guns and those who simply carry a gun as a tool. I realize that I am probably in the minority with this opinion. I have carried and trained with guns for more than 30 years. I am nearly always armed with a handgun but to be quite honest, I have no affinity with guns and care nothing for them outside of it being a tool of specific purpose. I train regularly out of a sense of moral obligation and desire to maintain a reasonable proficiency. I have never considered shooting guns to be fun or entertaining... rather I consider the whole process to be burdensome and at times, punitive.

Someone might read that and ask.. why am I here. Well, its not because for some interest in guns. I am here to foster discussions on the concept of self defense, personal safety and all things which may help mitigate crime and violence. Those discussions will often include guns but it doesn't mean I am a gun-guy. I think most of you here already know that Im not.

Great point and bamaranger's take..."beware the one gun man" is my opinion. Even though he qualifies his statement as "may well be true....or it may not" Just seems logical as heck though! Same with baseball bats, fishing rods, etc.....That said, I go against this logic and carry different handguns depending usually on the weather....if I have a bulkier outer layer, why not carry a bigger, more powerful weapon?

If T-Shirt weather, a smaller weapon, usually IWB and this too conflicts with the muscle memory thing as it's a different mode of draw, etc.

Most of us on this forum are gun guys. Most probably own more than a couple. What do you do with them, let them languish in a safe?

I sometimes think I would be better off with just one or two handguns. Same with rifles and shotguns.

I haven't been carrying anything the past couple weeks*. I live in MD, I don't have one of the few jobs where you can reasonably get a CCW permit here (business owner, pharmacist, cop, judge, possibly lawyer), and it has been busy at work (the weeks before winter break always are) so I haven't been anywhere I can carry on my UT non-resident permit in a while. However, break just started so I will be in WV, DE and VA a lot over the next two weeks, and in about a week I'll be in OH for several days visiting family I haven't seen in 20 years.

So, I will be carrying a few in the near future. Mostly my CZ PCR and P01 on my day trips to WV, VA and DE, and I may take my S&W 625MG at least once since I can while in winter clothing. However, when I go to OH, I will be considering that I don't know my cousins' views on guns. I will probably not ask, but it probably is safe to assume they don't like them. Most of my mom's side of the family is quite liberal, and one cousin is Wiccan, so liberal and likely anti-gun is a safe assumption. However, I really don't know, and I don't think I'll bring it up in conversation, so I will probably go smaller to be more discrete. I'm not 100% sure which of my smaller options I'll go with, or how small I'll go. I may go with my .38spl Taurus 856UL, or my 9mm SIG P290RS. However, if I need it, and I'm facing someone wearing heavy winter clothing I don't want to rely on hollow point expansion for effectiveness, especially when carrying a smaller gun with low capacity. I am a fan of rounds that don't rely on a HP for effectiveness in the winter so I still have a reasonable chance should it not expand and I'll be pretty far north so I assume most people will be wearing heavy layers (more so than when I'm in VA). So, I may take my .357mag Colt King Cobra (loaded with SWC-HP), my S&W M&P40c, or my Officer sized Rock Island Armory 1911 Rock Standard CS (I don't generally carry SA pistols with an external safety anymore, but I do sometimes make an exception in the winter for a .45ACP 1911, and my Officer sized 1911 is smaller, though heavier, than my .45ACP SIG P250 Compact).

Whichever guns I pick, they will be carried in a strong side IWB holster of one variation or another (most are IWB tuckable, many are hybrid). The SIG P290 or Taurus 856 might be carried IWB or in a pocket holster (and if I bring one of them with me to OH, I'll probably bring both an IWB and a pocket holster so I can choose whichever seems most appropriate at the time). The 625MG does sometimes ride in a Galco Summer Comfort IWB, but usually in a nice, carved, OWB holster from Black Hills Leather.

*I haven't even carried a knife and/or pepper spray much (I'm a teacher and can't bring any kind of weapon to work). When going out in the evenings, I do often carry a knife, which one varies, and pepper spray (I like the gel, less likely to come back at you if hit by a breeze), but most of the time, if I go somewhere lately, it has been while on my way home so I couldn't stop to pick up one of my knives and/or pepper spray.

glock 19 like normal , considering getting a g26 here in the near future

Think I already mentioned this somewhere but I have a G26 with a G19(15R) and G26(11R) magazines..the G19 magazine with a sleeve..VERY good shooter and a breeze to carry. Essentially a 'short barrel' G19 with the versatility to carry a shorter magazine, clothes dependent.

Think I already mentioned this somewhere but I have a G26 with a G19(15R) and G26(11R) magazines..the G19 magazine with a sleeve..VERY good shooter and a breeze to carry. Essentially a 'short barrel' G19 with the versatility to carry a shorter magazine, clothes dependent.

i just got my g19 not to long ago, do love it. used to carry a s&w 4566 in the fall and winter and a lcp once spring and summer got here, but i hate my lcp so im thinking the g26 will be a nice choice when it starts warming back up here

My trip is here (I'm leaving in 30-40min), so in a few hours (once I'm out of MD and PA) through Sunday I'll be carrying my Taurus 856UL (aluminum) in a Simply Rugged Pocket Protector pocket holster or ankle holster (I'm bringing both) and my Colt King Cobra (new model) IWB in a Simply Rugged Sourdough Pancake with the IWB straps. When I'm actually visiting with family, I'll only have the Taurus in my Maxpedition bag (which it is traveling in so I can easily move it from the trunk to taking it with me on stops once I enter OH), in the ankle holster, or in the pocket holster (probably the pocket or ankle holster, which one depends upon how my cold is doing and whether I need to carry Kleenex in the pocket the gun would go in). The Colt's holster is IWB but not tuckable, and since I don't know my family members' who I am visiting position on guns and carry I want to be as discrete as possible.

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